


Trials of the Elements

by HeidernLion



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 18:40:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24570202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeidernLion/pseuds/HeidernLion
Summary: [OC Backstory / Roleplay / Just a one-shot warm-up prose)C'senija Pahlo, a Seeker of the southeastern Thanalan Coeurl Clan, enjoys meditation in the Shroud from time to time in order to clear her head. Lately, her mind has been a mess with visions of the Elementals calling to her, pulling at her psyche with strange questions and memories of her past hardships.
Kudos: 1





	Trials of the Elements

**Author's Note:**

> Note: My work often features mature themes, such as death and traumatic experiences. Warnings will be used in the case of any potentially triggering descriptions, but otherwise there still might be mention.
> 
> OCs mentioned:  
> C'senija Pahlo  
> C'natoliy Tia  
> C'tehla Tia

“I have to run, I have to--”

She stumbled forward, catching her toe on a root jutting out from the soft earth beneath her. Closing her eyes tightly, she rolled down the hill a ways, before slamming against a rock. She panted deeply, savoring each breath like it was her last. Her breathing slowed and she closed her eyes, feeling the air ripped from her lungs.

“Seeker. Why are you in our realm?” whispered an unfamiliar, reverberating chorus of voices. She began to open her eyes, but could only make out dancing wisps of green against a storm grey backdrop. Her skin felt as though it was being tugged in all directions, and her clan’s sacred woven silk headwrap tore from her hair, sending it flying in all directions. 

“I don’t know,” she whispered back, “for the first time in my life. I think I’m really afraid.”

“That is your problem, Seeker.”

“Huh?” Her vision sharpened, and she saw three green figures floating before her, in the midst of a ferocious gale.

“You have lived your life fearless to the wind as it carries you in all manner of directions, why do you fear it now?”

She hesitated for a moment, but just as her lips began to part to utter a response, she fell. With a splash, she was completely submerged; her head pounding, her arms flailing. Water- no, not water. She felt dry, and she could breathe. It was just like that day, that horrible day, under the murky grey clouds at the Bay of Dha’yuz. "Tehla!!!" She cried out his name as an Amal’jaa arrow struck his shoulder. In her fear, she was frozen, helpless as she watched him struggle against the harsh tides, and before she knew it, the poison took effect. He was carried under the waves, conscious, alive, but paralyzed.

She couldn’t feel her body anymore, she couldn’t move.

“Seeker?”

She opened her mouth to scream, but only harsh, salt-filled ocean water filled her throat as a pillar of bubbles obscured her vision for a moment.

Now, a ceruleum blue figure floated before her, “Why struggle against the waters that nourish and heal? Do you not enjoy the gentle touch of the rain, the scent, the sensation it brings? Do you not meditate by the gentle streams of the Shroud? Have you not practiced your silly kicks and punches within the battering brooks?”

Regaining her sense of touch, she felt the warmth of the water. She gasped for breath, raising her white-marked tawny chest, and let that breath go like it was a failed lover; reluctantly, and with an emotional sinking of her chest accompanying the physical.

She was stuck, unable to take another breath. Crackling filled her ears, as the waters around her froze, burning her skin. Burning, as fire washed it all away, seering her flesh and filling her struggling lungs with smoke. She flailed, screaming in agony. Her thoughts turned blurry, feeling the same high she felt every night at the bar.

Every late night until closing time, until hardly anyone remained. “Whiskey, on the rocks,” she never bothered for anything fancy, nor expensive. Cheap liquor hit you hard, and that’s what she wanted. Rocks-- quite literally. She hated ice in her drinks, so she always requested stones instead. If a bar didn’t have those, it wasn’t worth going to. Cheap liquor, no dilution. That’s what she wanted.

She befriended the bartenders in Ul’dah- maybe “befriended” isn’t the right word for it. “You’re cut off!” they’d cry more than enough times. She’d gotten herself banned from a few bars, but mostly for picking fights with men thrice her size. Not like that mattered much. All brawn and no suave. When you know how the body works; how to read your opponent, you can take on anyone.

Life got a little less interesting once she took over Sharkbait. She could drink whenever she wanted, whatever she wanted, however she wanted, and no one was there to stop her. Well, unless Nat decided to stop by.

As the flames cleared, two more figures stood before her, one a gentle cyan, and the other a harsh orange.

“Why fight against the ice?”  
“The fire?”  
“We are just as vital to your survival too.”  
“Just as vital, we keep you from freezing, from starving.”  
“From burning, from starving.”

“But you can also destroy!”

“And you?”

A purple figure appeared behind her, causing her to spin abruptly to meet its voice. Deafening thunder rattled her bones. Lightning ripped apart the endless skies, like fragile silks being torn to shreds in anger.

“I’ll never be a Coeurl clan warrior, NEVER!”  
“Nini, don’t say that.”  
“Don’t call me that, we’re not children anymore!”

Two naive teenagers, eyes a misty blue, sand-caked manes of hair framing their faces. She clutched the tattered blue fabric in her hands, discarding it furiously onto the floor of the grass hut. “I hate this clan. I hate the elders. I hate these women who simply accept the predatory nature of our Nunh! I hate these men. I hate--” tears began pouring from her eyes, sullying the sharply painted designs on her cheeks.

“C’natoliy. What they did to you...”

“I’m okay…” His voice was soft, hardly distinguishable under the deafening white noise of the pouring rains and rolling thunders outside. “I’m okay, C’senija. I promise.” His voice cracked, and he swallowed deeply.

“Don’t lie to me, brother!”  
“I’m-”  
“They beat you! They tortured you! They raped you! And they laughed!”

He stared at the shredded silk for a moment, lifting his legs onto the bed fashioned of thick branches and piled hides.

“That’s for me to deal with…”

“No! I’m done standing idly as they rip you apart! I’m done gritting my teeth and baring it for the sake of clan loyalty! It’s stupid, it’s fuckin’ stupid! They hurt you, Tehla is gone, and--”

“You’re just still hurting from the loss of Tehla,” he rolled onto his side, facing away from her and pulling his knees to his chest, wrapping his tufted tail around him. The bed shook as she slammed her foot against it. “How dare you! How dare you blame this on Tehla--”   
“...I’m not blaming it on anyone… It’s just...”   
“This has nothing to do with him! This clan is nothing but a bunch of barbaric men wh--”  
She leaned forward, placing her hand on her brother’s cheek, “Natoliy, you’re… you’re shaking…”

A sharp crack of lightning, and a ringing in her ears. She stood face-to-face with the blood red eyes of a black-furred Coeurl, its tendrils aglow with lightning.

“You’re of the Coeurl clan. Your blood pulses with the Coeurl’s lightning, so why does your body tense against the sight of its electrified whiskers.”

“I’m not of the Coeurl clan, I was just born into the clan. I couldn’t control that.”

“There are many things you can’t control, Seeker, but that does not mean you must reject everything that is not within your grasp.”

Five voices spoke in perfect unison, each of the coloured figures floating far above her, the ferocious beast still hissing before her.

“But you must not fear what you can’t control. The urge to fight is not always brought on by strength, sometimes, it is weakness manifested, brittle, like ice,” spoke the cyan elemental.

“Weakness is not bad. We are all weak. The ice melts into water, the water floods, beating away at everything in its path,” continued the blue elemental.

“Even the roaring, untouchable fire can be extinguished,” added the ember elemental.

“For you cannot have strength without weakness,” the green elemental continued.

“The boulder crushes, but sand flows through your fingers,” a golden yellow elemental took form, “do not forget the raw strength and adaptability which you were given, blessed Seeker. We chose you for a reason.”

“Chose? Whaddya mean, 'chose'? For what?” Every sense began to return to her. She saw the evening sun creeping through the trees of the Shroud, feeling its warmth on her skin. She could smell the river, hear it flowing in tune with birdsong. 

“You will understand when you need to. You will return to us, and you will make your own choice.”

“Sena!!!” cried a familiar voice as footsteps grew closer and closer. She turned her head to see him leap from the back of a bucking Chocobo, landing gracefully and crouching by her side, the horse-bird’s big, beady eyes meeting hers. He pulled the wine red linen top from his shoulders, wrapping her in it and lifting her from the mud of the riverbank “You’re sopping wet, you’ll get cold out here.”

“I ain’ got a fur coat like you, ya balding ape.” She swayed her tail, perking her eyes in a taunt.

His lids dropped and lips straightened in disgust, “You know… I could just drop you back in the river...”

“Oh dear brother, you wouldn’ do that,” she coo’ed half-jokingly.  
“Sure I wouldn’t.”  
“I’d break your hips and fold you like a suitcase. Backwards.”  
“You shouldn’t come out here when you’re drunk.”  
“I’m not drunk. I’m fine. I’m sober.”  
“Sure you are.”  
“The elementals. They were sayin’ things at me.”  
“Sure they were.”  
“I swear on it.”  
“Let’s get you back to the Sharkbait and get you a nice glass of water.”  
“No ice.”  
“Of course.”


End file.
